Pitching
by thechosenone305
Summary: Dirk Strider knew that his younger brother was a melodramatic diva. He knew that he would nag on for him, just to piss him off. But also knew when Dave was moping and sad, he needed a distraction. Something to cheer him up, make him go back to his normal self. And that distraction was baseball. One shot, fluff, brotherly bonding, baseball.


A/N: Happy 4/13 y'all! I've had this idea for weeks. So basically, I played OFF for a while during the summer, right? And then, I saw how some people in the fandom associated The Batter with Bro | Dirk. And then I watched Catch from RoosterTeeth. So then I thought, "What if Dave and Dirk just tossed a baseball around for a while to get rid of stress?" And the rest just kinda fell into place. It just kinda ended up writing itself so to say.

But yeah, math is very frustrating. And then I decided to write a fanfic about it. Funny how right after I finished this fanfic is that I finished my homework for Geometry. And it actually made a little bit of sense! :D

Some notes: Dave is a junior in high school. Dirk is his guardian. And it's April, crunch time for high school. I had a trouble deciding on the title so I just went with pitching because it's what the Striders basically do in this one shot sooooo yeah.

Anyways, I don't own Homestuck. Enjoy!

* * *

Dirk Strider knew that his younger brother was a melodramatic diva.

It was nothing new. Younger siblings were like that. Dave would nag Dirk to give him the remote when it was on the coffee table in front of him, just to piss him off. He would sigh loudly when Dirk didn't budge, just to piss him off. Dave He tended to exaggerate a lot. And he'd ramble. And ramble. And ramble so much.

But in all, he loves his little brother. It doesn't really feel like he has a choice. It's part of his life, watching out for him and making sure he's doing okay. His little brother was the best, and honestly fun to have around.

And he was currently moping.

Dirk could feel something was off with Dave. Strider brother telepathy, he called it. But really, it was just parental instinct because dammit, he could feel it. He could feel Dave's teenage angst. Dirk knew what it felt like, because he wasn't that old, no matter how much Dave is insisted. Dirk knew that teenagers had their angsty days, but with it was drastically different with Dave. Other days he was talking Dirk's ear off about school, some days he was bouncing around excited over his new remix. Some days, he'd just stay in his room laughing at some weird sitcom.

But Dave was like any other teenager. And then there's the days where he's mopey and cranky and groaning at every chore. Complaining about everything, refusing to come out of his room.

Which was happening for two weeks already.

It was a repeating cycle. Dave would come home, eat, grab something from the fridge, go to his room, go eat dinner, go back to his room, sleep.

At first, Dirk thought it was because of something he said that made Dave mad. He knew he put in his foot in his mouth sometimes. But Dave would have told him straight up. Dirk thought it was because of lack of sleep, but he knew Dave slept like a log. He slept well. But no matter how much Dirk tried to find out what's been bothering Dave, he would get the typical "I'm fine, bro. Just tired." And then he would stay quiet, grab something from the fridge and eventually retreat to his bedroom.

Dirk knew it would pass. Dave needed some space, so he gave him some.

As the moping continued, it was Saturday afternoon when Dirk heard a two really loud thuds from Dave's room.

Dirk was in his room looking for something, knee deep into his closet when he heard the thuds. The first one was like a slam of a door shutting loudly, and a few seconds after that, the second thud was followed with a long "Uggggggggggggh."

Yep. It was Dave.

Sighing, Dirk left his room and went to see what was going on this time.

"Hey, what's wrong?"

Dave was lying face first on the light cream colored carpet, shades in one hand. A math textbook was next to him. But what struck out to Dirk the most was that Dave took his shades out of harm's way showed that he was a Strider to the core.

"Dave, you okay?"

Dave let out a second groan. "I give up in life," he replied, his voice muffled by the carpet.

This time, instead of his usual dramatic tone, he sounded serious.

Dirk sighed and sat down on the ground next to Dave. "Alright. Talk to me, little dude. What's been bothering you?" he asked gently, waiting for Dave's reply. It was always better to approach Dave that way when he was sulky, a simple question. He knew not to reprimand him or demand an explanation right away.

Dave looked up, bright red eyes looking up to Dirk's own golden. "Ever hear of this thing called stress, Dirk?"

"Kid, I'm an adult. I know stress too well. But….Let me guess; junior year blues?"

"More like Algebra blues, yeah."

So that was what was bothering Dave. Math. Dirk didn't see that coming.

"Is it that bad?"

Getting more comfortable, Dave flipped over, laying down on his back. "Bad enough to make me give up everything that is math related in life."

"Damn. Back in my day, school wasn't as stressing."

"It's just so goddamn frustrating," Dave sighed, covering his face. "I've cried over math problems so many times already. I didn't think I'd ever fall this low."

"It's understandable. Math is confusing."

"I mean how is math going to help me in life?" Dave asked, exasperated. "Am I going to be opening a bank account and using the pythagorean theorem on my checks? Paying my rent and using some math formula to do so?"

Dirk chuckled a little bit. "I'm pretty sure it doesn't work that way."

"Exactly! I don't know what I'm going to do with my life. School stresses me out, math stresses me out, stress stresses me out," Dave groaned. "I hate stress so much."

Dirk sighed again, ruffling Dave's hair. "Same here, little brother."

"Is it possible to delete stress?" Dave asked, pouting. "I wish I could delete school, but I just really want to delete stress."

"I wish I knew a way to do that."

"Does being an adult suck?"

"It has benefits."

"But I know how to not focus on it."

"How?"

"Remember when I taught you how to play baseball?"

"With the tennis ball?"

Dave was around 8 when Dirk taught him to play baseball. He started off with a plastic bat and a tennis ball. Once he got the hang of it, he began using Dirk's extra baseball and mitt. He was better at being the pitcher. Dirk was the batter.

For the following summers, they played baseball. Dave never wanted to join a team, saying that it was just for fun. Baseball was a hobby, a fun distraction.

But then they stopped in 6th grade when Dave turned eleven. He was going through his hipster asshole phase, saying that baseball was for losers.

"Yeah. Remember all the fun we had?"

Dave smiled a little bit. "Yeah."

"Want to play some baseball? Just for all time sakes?"

"Anything to get me away from that textbook."

"Let's go then."

Dirk stood up and offered his hand to Dave, hoisting him to his feet.

* * *

"It's so hooooooooooooooot," Dirk groaned outside.

"It's not too hot, Dirk." Dave said, carrying the mitts and baseball. He wore a loose grey t-shirt, dirty converse and faded jeans. As always in public, he wore his shades. "And you're wearing sweats."

Which was true. Dirk wore his typical lazy outfit, except his shirt was white and he wore some old sweats.

"Suit yourself."

"It's been years since we've been here."

The park itself wasn't too different. Sure, Dave passed by it every morning Dirk dropped him off to school, but it was the same. Same straw like grass, where the rain from the previous day was taking it's effects on making it greener. Same old bench and same crooked tree that kids always climbed on. Same playground, paint still miraculously remaining. The swing set was still standing, some kids already swinging on them.

Trees were already growing green leaves. The recent rainfall really did benefit them.

Dave and Dirk walked past the playground and picnic tables and onto the field. Some boys were dressed in a blue and white soccer uniform and were kicking the ball around. In one corner, a group of elementary girls were playing softball. Somewhere near the middle of the field, a little girl was tossing a football to her dad.

"Huh. We weren't the only ones with plans."

"It's a nice day."

Dave and Dirk went to an empty side of the field and got ready to play.

"You wanna be the batter?"

"Nah. I was thinking just passing the ball around."

Dave shrugged. "Sounds good to me."

"Do you ever think back to elementary school? The good ol' days where the hardest thing to do were those twenty math problems under a minute? Where the worst thing in the world was the beep test?"

"What's the beep test?" Dirk asked, tossing the ball.

Dave caught it. "You know, the one where they make you run across the gym and you have to make it under the beep? And the time between the beeps got shorter and shorter each time?"

Dirk raised his eyebrow. "That sounds like horror. Back in my day, dodgeball was gym hell."

"I think dodgeball would solve my problems if math was a person on the other team."

"Imagine stress as a person though. Knocking them down would be eternal satisfaction."

"Why did we stop playing baseball?"

"I don't know. I think it was because I used to be such a cynical hipster asshole in 6th grade and thought that baseball was for losers."

"Ahhhh I remember. Those ironic selfies and 'I'm not like other boys' captions," Dirk snickered.

Dave's face flushed red. "We don't talk about those selfies, Dirk."

"But you were right on the cynical hipster asshole part."

Dave laughed and tossed the ball back. "It gives me nightmares. Thank god I got over that phase."

"Wait you did?" Dirk asked, .

Dave rolled his eyes. "How funny," he said sarcastically.

"Don't talk to me in that tone, young man. I'm going to use those ironic selfies as blackmail," Dirk tossed the baseball back to Dave.

Dave caught it and laughed. "Ha! Goodluck finding them. I burned them."

"Not before I saved them onto my hard drive under a folder called 'Blackmail'. Go far," Dirk ran back a few yards and tossed Dave the ball.

Dave jumped up and caught it. "Got it. I'm gonna tell Rose to blow up your laptop."

"Nice try, squirt. Roxy made a program that makes it impenetrable," Dirk caught the ball.

Dave sighed. "Goddammit Dirk."

"Hey, that's how it always is. You're two steps in, I'm twenty steps ahead. Go low."

Dave stuck his tongue out at Dirk as he caught the ball, crouching a little bit.

"Dude, we're in the park playing baseball. How Texan can we get?"

"Texas's sport is football you numbskull. I'm afraid I'm going to have to take away your Texan license."

"Same thing."

And that's how it went. As the sun continued blazing down, Dave and Dirk were just passing the baseball around, cracking jokes and laughing. And Dave found himself having a lot of fun.

Dirk grinned. He was having fun, Dave was having fun. That's what mattered.

"Hey squirt, say we go get some hot dogs and lemonade?"

"Sounds fine by me!"

* * *

A/N: Yay, I finished the one shot :D About time I did! Anyways, happy two days late 4/13! I enjoyed writing this. It felt great, writing some fluff and brotherly bonding and whatnot. Idk, I'm really enjoying writing AUs for Homestuck so the chances of more one shots in the future are hella high.

Anyways, thank you for reading and comments are always welcome!


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